Products and innovations • By Amon Cohen


Invisible difference


Technology is taking touchless, seamless payments to a new level. Meanwhile, providers continue to innovate in areas of data and process


E


ver fancied walking out of a restaurant or driving away from a filling station forecourt without paying? Not doing


a runner, of course – that’s illegal and naughty. But wouldn’t it be great to elimi- nate the payment process itself: being told how much the bill is, fishing out a card and waiting for your server to complete the transaction? The restaurant example given above


already exists today. Diners can have their food and drink order sent to their phone and they confirm payment with a single tap. Meanwhile, companies like Visa, Samsung and SAP Vehicles Network are working on payless fuel-filling. They are part of the next big trend in payments, known as ‘invisible payments’. And not


“We see the trend everywhere for embedding cards into processes and making payments disappear”


only do travellers benefit from it – so, too, can the travel manager. Other types of invisible payment are


already with us. Website and app cus- tomers register their card number with a supplier once and then don’t need to trot it out again, nor in some cases even confirm the card details, for subsequent


purchases. One-click payment with Amazon is an example of this. Within travel, the ultra-convenience of storing a card number on the Uber app has partly explained the ride service’s phenomenal popularity over the past couple of years. Virtual cards are also a form of invis-


ible payment. “One key reason virtual payment is popular with clients is because it operates seamlessly in the background and remains completely invisible to the cardholder,” says Bank of America Merrill Lynch head of EMEA commercial cards, Melissa Gargagliano. “The cardholder follows the existing business travel reser- vation process laid out by their organisa- tion. In the background, the self-booking tool or travel management company [TMC] back-office system communicates with the bank, where a single-use card number is dynamically generated and attached to the reservation, which is then sent to the supplier for payment. Any cardholder interaction is eliminated.” Simon Barker, chief executive of virtual


CALLING OUT AROUND THE WORLD: ISSUERS EXPAND THEIR GLOBAL FOOTPRINTS


A KEY QUESTION FOR MULTINATIONAL TRAVEL MANAGERS is whether they can put the same card in the hands of travellers in all the countries in their travel programmes. Issuers continue to strive to meet that need. “We ask clients if they want contactless cards and other technology or more markets, and they always say the latter,” says Citi’s Steve Robson. Armed with that knowledge, Citi has added Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico since the start of 2015, meaning it now issues in local currency in 67 countries, and offers a cross-border product in another 30. Barclaycard says it has added ten more territories over the past year, taking its total to 107 markets. Meanwhile, Vatican City has become the 183rd territory in which a virtual card number provided by Conferma has been accepted. It would appear even His Holiness is a fan of the technology.


In association with


card technology provider Conferma, agrees. “We are seeing examples of travel purchasing where, if the transaction is within policy, the payment element is removed,” he says. “The click-to-book page does not go to a payment page because it is redundant. There is only one option and it is controlled.” Barker says this is already happening through Conferma’s relationship with Premier Inn. “The traveller checks out by walking out,” he says. “They never see a card number.” Both Barker and Barclaycard product


director Maria Parpou believe virtual cards fit invisible payments perfectly because the number is used once only. “We see the trend everywhere for embedding cards into processes and making payments dis- appear,” says Parpou. “It works for all card types but we particularly like virtual cards because one number for one payment leads to much smoother reconciliation.” Barker cites security advantages, too.


PAYMENT APPS It is easy to see why all of this appeals to business travellers. Take the payment apps now available for restaurants – names such as Qkr!, Mycheck and Orderbird, the latter currently in pilot tests with Airplus International. They eliminate the average


BBT CORPORATE CARDS SUPPLEMENT 2016 21


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